[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 106 (Friday, July 29, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1742]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    COOPERATIVE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JOE KNOLLENBERG

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, July 29, 2005

  Mr. KNOLLENBERG. Mr. Speaker, the Cooperative Development Program, 
CDP, of USAID serves an important role in America's international 
development assistance. For a modest annual investment, credit unions 
and cooperatives can have a greater opportunity to flourish through the 
work of the World Council of Credit Unions and other non-governmental 
cooperative development organizations.
  In a world where three billion people live on less than $2 a day, 
access to safe and sound financial services is essential to helping 
people build better lives for themselves. The World Council of Credit 
Unions, WOCCU, works to strengthen credit unions implementing technical 
assistance programs to improve credit union performance so that these 
non-for-profit cooperative financial institutions can offer an array of 
client-responsive services, extend their geographic coverage, and 
harness technology.
  Created by the vision of the U.S. credit union movement, WOCCU has 
been implementing their technical assistance programs for over 30 
years. Prior to WOCCU's formation in 1970, the Credit Union National 
Association, CUNA, had an international division called CUNA Global 
Projects dedicated to overseas credit union activities. Today, CUNA and 
their state league system, representing 86 million credit union members 
in the U.S., work with WOCCU to promote credit union growth in 
developing countries.
  Through the current funding cycle of USAID's CDP, WOCCU will spend 
the next 4 years working with credit unions around the world and 
focused in Afghanistan, Kenya, the Philippines, Ecuador and Nicaragua 
to build networks--expanding low-cost transaction services for members, 
including remittances; creating enabling environments; training credit 
union managers and board members; and extending credit union operations 
to difficult operating environments, including HIV/AIDS-affected 
communities, conflict-prone zones and poverty-entrenched rural areas.
  Credit unions and cooperatives provide hope for economic prosperity 
through grassroots businesses that provide jobs, income, basic 
education and democratic experience. I will continue to support the 
USAID Cooperative Development Program to sustain overseas cooperative 
development in developing countries and emerging democracies.

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